The present invention concerns shifters for shifting vehicle transmissions, and more particularly concerns a shifter having a pivot constructed to facilitate assembly.
The vehicle manufacturing industry is highly competitive, and it is important to design vehicle components with a minimum of parts, labor, and secondary assembly operations to minimize costs. Further, modem vehicle manufacturers are emphasizing just-in-time delivery and low inventories as a way of reducing costs. Often, these assembly methods often result in shifter components being manufactured in a central first location and subassembled in a plurality of satellite second locations near the various vehicle assembly plants. It is desirable to use unskilled labor and a minimum of assembly equipment and parts at the second locations since it can be expensive to maintain a skilled staff and assembly equipment at each second facility. Concurrently, it is desirable to minimize the chances of misassembly, and also to provide a serviceable shifter that can be readily disassembled and repaired if necessary, since it can be difficult to control quality at the second facilities.
Presently, many shifters include a base and one or more pivot pins for pivoting a shift lever to the base. One common securement method is to stake, peen, or otherwise deform an end of the pivot pins to secure the pivot pins in place. However, the deformation process requires power equipment and close quality control to assure that the deformation is consistent and adequately secure without binding the pivotal connection. Also, the pivot pins must be inventoried. Still further, the pivot pins must be handled and manipulated during assembly, and also holes in parts for receiving the pivot pins must be aligned, such that the assembly process is more tedious and inefficient than desired.
Thus, a shifter is desired that can be efficiently constructed with a minimum of parts and that can be readily assembled with a minimum of risk of misassembly, but which are secure, reliable, and serviceable.